SBC Survey Results: Third-Party Testing
Some agreement, some disconnects between Industry and Government Posted on June 30, 2022
The Safer Buildings Coalition (SBC), the only trade association purpose-built to lead national policy and education for in-building wireless services, shares the results of our survey on the subject of Third- Party Testing.
Some ERCES stakeholders have a indicated a concern about companies who perform in-building radio signal strength assessment testing to determine whether or not a building needs an ERCES system, and who then provide a quote to design and install a system if the building fails. It has been suggested that this is a conflict of interest.
We sought your opinion on the various models we've seen around the country:
- Jurisdiction maintains a list of "approved" testing vendors.
- Jurisdiction designates one "approved" test vendor per jurisdiction.
- Jurisdiction may or may not allow the testing vendor to also bid the work.
- Jurisdiction has no restrictions on who tests and who installs.
We received 130 submissions as follows:
- Government: 37
- Industry: 90
- End Users: 3
- Total: 130
Observations:
- Government and Industry substantially disagree on whether a vendor who pre-tests a building to determine ERCES need should be allowed to also bid on these projects
- Government = 46% Yes, Industry = 79% Yes
- Government and Industry seem to agree that if third-party testing is used, jurisdictions should develop a list of approved vendors:
- Develop list of approved vendors: Government = 70%, Industry = 82%
- Vendor Certification (NICET): Government = 8%, Industry = 9%
- Rigorous Standards: Government: 11%, Industry 3%
- Government and Industry disagree on whether vendors who did the install should be allowed to do acceptance testing on their own systems without direct supervision of the AHJ
- Government = 19% Yes, Industry = 41% Yes
- Government and Industry indicate that 3rd party plan review is a feasible option
- Government = 86% Yes / Maybe, Industry = 77% Yes / Maybe
Takeaways:
- Industry has some work to do to build trust with AHJs.
- There is high interest in developing lists of approved vendors in jurisdictions.
- Certification will help.
- Reading between the lines: Government is concerned about the "fox watching the henhouse".
- Reading between the lines: Resource constrained jurisdictions are open to third-party plan review.
CLICK THE CHART and TABLE IMAGES TO ENLARGE
Detailed Breakdown Of Survey Participants:
- Govt: Code Official 19
- Govt: Public Safety First Responder (Operations) 1
- Govt: Public Safety Radio System Administrator / Operator 16
- Industry: 3rd party test service for ERRCS 1
- Industry: Building Tester 1
- Industry: Consultant 2
- Industry: Consultant- We do independent third party assessment testing but do not design/build 1
- Industry: Distribution 2
- Industry: Manufacturer 6
- Industry: NRTL 1
- Industry: professional services/Consultant 1
- Industry: Public Safety Radio/First Responder Engineering 1
- Industry: Retired Fire Marshal / RF test consultant - Spectrum RF LLC 1
- Industry: RF software tools developer 1
- Industry: Systems Integrator 73
- Property Owner / End User 3
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